Computers for Student Success program will provide free desktops to local nonprofits during holidays

Tidewater Community College’s Computers for Student Success program will provide free desktop computers to local nonprofit organizations so that they may be given to needy families during this holiday season.

Computers for Student Success refurbishes donated computers and provides them to TCC students and nonprofits throughout Hampton Roads. As many as 130 volunteer information systems technology and computer science students from the college receive hands-on instruction to repair the donated computers from TCC professor Gary Noah.

The program will give approximately 10 local nonprofits up to five computers each for a total of 50 computers to be given away over the holidays.

The Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Virginia, ForKids in Norfolk and the Chesapeake chapter of the Maison Fortuné Orphanage Foundation are among the nonprofits that have already expressed interest in receiving computers.

Interested nonprofit groups that would like to take part should contact TCC’s Computers for Student Success program weekdays between noon and 5 p.m. at 757-512-5807 or TCCompClub@gmail.com by Dec. 10.

The nonprofits will provide the computers to recipients.

“We can make it so that at least 50 families have computers in their homes this holiday season,” Noah said. “That makes a big difference for students who want to succeed in school.”

Since its inception in 2009, Computers for Student Success has provided more than 7,500 computers to students and nonprofit organizations. Students receive computers based on an application process that considers need.

More than 1,328 computers have been given to 160 nonprofits in Hampton Roads. The program has received gift-in-kind donations of computers and equipment in excess of $1.5 million since 2009. About 75 percent of the computers are donated by Sentara Healthcare.